The Inheritance (The Donatelli Series) (8 page)

“I’m negotiating with the sellers on that property. Assuming I get it, I’ll need a house plan, and since your cousin is still in college—”

“Since
Max and Company
is paying his way through, he’s sharing his school assignments with us. There’s one that might work, with a few changes. It’s a big house. Is that what you want?”

Blade didn’t know what he wanted, except he didn’t want anything formal. If big meant he could have a nice master bedroom, two or three other nice sized bedrooms, a room for a pool table, an office that would fit that partner’s desk in his grandfather’s house in New York, and a library, then he wanted big. On the other hand, he didn’t want to rattle around by himself in something the size of his grandfather’s house.

“I don’t know what I want, Nick. I need to talk with Maria. It’s weird having someone read my thoughts, but sometimes I think she knows me better than I know myself.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. That’s one reason I hired her. She’s good at reading what people really want. She’s never had any special training or classes in decorating, and I don’t care. Her instincts are excellent, and the kitchens and bathrooms in our homes have never looked better.”

“Are you talking about me?” asked Maria.

Blade turned to see her walking through the office door. She looked good enough to eat in black slacks and a pale pink pullover sweater with a big, draped neckline. As she hung her jacket on the hook beside the door, he looked at her small waist and generous ass.

She shot him a look over her shoulder.
It’s your fault for looking so good
, he thought.

“Generous?” she said. “That’s like thinking a woman is fat.”

Not fat, just right for holding onto in bed.

Maria grabbed her jacket. “I’m out of here.”

“Hold on, Maria,” said Nick. “Blade needs your help, and nobody thinks you’re fat. Turn that radar off.”

“I wish I could.”

Blade begged with his eyes. “I need your help, Maria.”

“With what? Finding a house plan or finding a wife?”

You’d help me find a wife?

“Is that what you want?”

Nick held up both hands. “You two have a strange way of communicating, and I have work to do. Lock up when you leave, Maria.” He grabbed his jacket and left.

Blade couldn’t take his eyes off Maria. “You’d give me to another woman?”

“You’re not mine to give, and you don’t want a woman with kids.”

He closed his eyes and shook his head slightly.
What if you didn’t have kids? Would you be interested in me?

“I can’t answer that.”

“Can’t or don’t want to?” He came out of his chair and walked toward her. She backed up until she ran into Nick’s desk.

Can’t or don’t want to? You’re scared spitless about falling for another guy, aren’t you, honey? It isn’t me, it’s you. You don’t like who I am or what I am, but you’re so turned on when we’re together you can’t think straight.
He grabbed her shoulders and held on tightly while his lips ravaged hers. A little kitten sound escaped. He teased her lips apart and deepened the kiss until they were both breathing hard and he had a major woody that strained at the zipper in his pants.

Maria couldn’t catch her breath. She always maintained control, but when she was with Blade, that control sprouted wings and flew out the window. Her bones had turned soft and a pool of liquid heat settled between her legs before she came to her senses and backed away from him.

“Let’s see if we can find a house plan to work with, Blade.”

“Yeah, okay. It’s a little early for sex for some people, I suppose, although there’s nothing like a little morning after romp.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Blade, please. This is a professional office, not your bedroom, and—”

“Yeah, okay. I can wait until tonight. Tell you what. I’ll take you and Sophia and the kids out for Mexican tonight, and after you put the kids to bed, we can...”
screw the night away.

“No, we can’t.” She moved around to the other side of Nick’s desk, putting a barrier between them. “If you need a wife that much, I’ll call some friends and see if I can find someone who might be interested.”

I found the woman I want.

“Are you asking me to marry you?”

“Would you say yes if I did?”

“No, I wouldn’t. I don’t want or need another husband. I’m not going through the anguish of another divorce, and I won’t put my children through it.”

“They like me.”

“I’ll help you find someone. What kind of woman are you looking for.”

Look in the mirror, honey.
He moved around the desk, cornering her.

“You don’t want kids and you don’t like dogs.”

“I like dogs better than cats, although I think Daisy is more cat than dog.” He took another step closer.

“Daisy would be highly insulted to hear you say that.”

He burst out laughing, throwing her completely off guard. Without touching her with his hands, he rubbed his cheek against hers and whispered in her ear. “My place tonight, after the kids go to bed. I have an adequate supply.”

She knew better than to ask, but she did anyway. “Supply of what?”

“Condoms, rubbers, protection, birth control, clothes, whatever you want to call those things that men roll on before they dive into paradise. We can screw all night long and never run out.”

The phone on Nick’s desk rang and Maria jumped. Blade stepped back. The moment was over, but she was very much afraid there’d be another and another and another, until he broke her resolve. God help her, because if he kissed her again, she’d go home with him right now.

She had to find him another woman, and fast, before this thing got completely out of hand.

Who did she know who didn’t have kids, liked motorcycles and dangerous men, and wanted to get married?

Did she really want to send this exciting man to another woman’s bed?

Chapter Five

M
aria spent the rest of the morning going through house plans with Blade. The one Nick had shown him, the one Al had done in school, didn’t meet Blade’s requirements, and she couldn’t see him living in any of the other plans. Blade wanted a house that reflected his unique personality.

She kept the table between them and insisted he behave himself, and he did, but his thoughts often strayed. She thought knowing she could read his thoughts would make him concentrate on things other than her anatomy and how much he wanted to make love to her. Did he do that on purpose? Maybe. With Blade, she couldn’t tell. He was a confusing man.

She’d never had a problem staying out of other men’s heads, not like she did with Blade. Fred’s thoughts were usually on himself or on sex and other women, and she’d learned to tune him out. She’d never told Fred she could hear his thoughts. She didn’t want to share that aspect of her life with Fred. If she hadn’t been able to read Roberto’s thoughts, if she hadn’t known he was in love with her, if she hadn’t been starved for affection and desperately unhappy in her marriage, she wouldn’t have given him a second look.

Maria shook off her thoughts and got back to the business at hand, finding a house plan for Blade. He wanted a house with two floors and a partial walk-out basement in back, a place to put a pool table. He also wanted a workshop, a place to work on his precious Harley.

“How many bedrooms do you need, Blade?”

“One, but since I have to get married, I suppose my wife will want more. And then there’s that resale thing, in case I decide to live in Europe or Australia or South America for a few years.”

The thought of him moving away, of never seeing him again, gave her a sudden, unexpected sense of loss.

Would you miss me, Maria?

“Yes, I would,” she replied to his unspoken question.

He leaned back in his chair and stretched his long legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. He’d probably practiced that seductive half-smile in the mirror this morning. He was James Dean all over again, only taller and better built. But she’d never wanted to kiss James Dean, and she wanted to kiss Blade Banner. She wanted to do more than kiss him.

She looked away and brought their conversation back to business. “What other rooms do you want?”

“I want an exercise room off the bedroom, a separate office big enough to put a partners desk in, and a library.”

“All on the first floor?”

“No, I want the library upstairs, someplace quiet and private. I’ll need lots of shelves, because my second bedroom is filled with books and I intend to bring my grandfather’s books from New York. If possible, I’d like a balcony off the library overlooking the water, someplace to put a telescope, so I can see the stars.”

Somehow, Maria found it hard to put Blade and library and telescope in one sentence. “Do you read a lot?”

“Everything I can get my hands on. I thought about going for a Ph.D. one of these days.”

“In what?”

He shrugged. “Economics or history, if I could decide which period to focus on, the Revolutionary War era or the Civil War.”

“What would you do with a Ph.D. in History?”

“Teach college, but I won’t have time to teach when I get married. I expect to get involved in my family’s shipping business.”

“Can you do that?”

“I have a master’s degree in business, and once I get possession of my grandfather’s stock, they can’t stop me. I can poke my nose into every aspect of the business once I take possession of the entire estate.”

This man continually surprised her. He only attended one year of high school, but he had a master’s degree in business. He drove a motorcycle and dressed like a biker, he was clueless about how much soap to use on anything, and he turned her inside-out with his kisses. He didn’t like kids, but he didn’t hesitate to help her little boys and their dog out of a jam. And she’d never felt more alive than when she was with him.

“Who are you, Blade Banner?”

“I’m me, honey. I’m one of a kind.”

“Yes, you certainly are.”

He closed the plan they’d been looking at. “This one won’t do. Is Al coming home for spring break?”

“Yes, next week.”

“Good. Maybe he can come up with some ideas while he’s here, assuming the sellers on that property accept my offer.”

As she put the plan back in the drawer, she felt Blade’s eyes on her back. He liked looking at her, and she felt flattered by his attention. After what she’d gone through with Fred, it felt good to have a man think of her as a sexy woman. Fred had accused her of not keeping him interested. He’d blamed her for his infidelity.

Fred hadn’t told her that he’d been married before. Maria didn’t find out until she’d been married to him for nearly a year. She’d had her first miscarriage and heard him arguing with a woman outside her hospital room door. The nurse was his ex-wife. As if losing the baby wasn’t bad enough, she had to learn that her husband had lied about his past. The nurse barely spoke with Maria that day, as if it was her fault the woman’s marriage to Fred had failed.

She felt no animosity toward Fred’s girlfriends. They probably didn’t know he was married, all except the one he planned to marry. She was Molly’s favorite teacher last year, until Molly found out her father was having an affair with her. Molly transferred out of her class and never spoke to her again, and she hadn’t spoken with her father again either. Fred hardly noticed. He didn’t care about any of his children except Robbie, and then only because Robbie carried his name. It was unfair to single out one of his children and ignore the others, but that was exactly what Fred had done. He gave all his attention to Robbie.

Molly hated her father, and the little boys had Uncle Nick and Uncle Angelo, but Robbie missed his daddy. He was the only one of her kids who had a hard time with the separation and divorce, the only one of the kids Fred had ever paid attention to. Fred had never wanted more than one child, a son to carry on his name. When Maria had her second and third miscarriage before Molly was born, Fred said it was her fault, and he’d never have the son he wanted. And then Molly came along, and Fred blamed Maria for having a girl instead of a boy. Fred’s badgering had driven her into another man’s arms. Fred got the son he wanted, but the son who carried his name wasn’t his.